Into the Woods
by justkillingtime
Summary: Lexie, George, Meredith, Derek, Alex, Izzie, Cristina and Mark all head into the woods to check out a cabin which Lexie has inherited following the untimely death of Thatcher. The cabin hasn't been visited since Meredith was 5.
1. Chapter 1

"Time of death 11:33am."

Lexie stared through the window of the trauma room and watched as her best friend pronounced her father dead. She took a step back and sat down in a chair, she lent forward and she rested her head in her hands. She let out a long slow breath and tried to begin getting her head around what had just happened.

Her dad was dead. He'd wrapped his car around a tree. That in itself didn't surprise her, since her mother had died the moments he'd been sober were few and far between. She'd often thought it was only a matter of time before he'd kill himself, but at the same time she didn't think it would actually happen.

"Lexie," George came and sat down beside her. "I'm sorry. We did everything we could."

"I know. It's not your fault. It's his own stupid fault." There was a hint of bitterness in her voice. "It was his own stupid fault." The words came out of her mouth again, slower and more controlled. She was in shock and starting to get mad. She was angry at her father, she was angry at him for letting himself go, for letting himself die.

"Lexie," George reached out and took her hand, he squeezed it in his own. "Can I do something for you? Is there something I can do?"

"No. I, I need to find Meredith." She pushed George's hand away and stood up. "I have to tell her"

"Lexie –"

"I have to be the one to tell her." She said the words to herself as much as to George. She needed to do something, she couldn't just sit there, she had to keep moving.

She walked with her head held up through the hospital. She was using every ounce of her energy not to cry, and not to run. She didn't want to run, not now not yet, she would run after. She would run when she could leave the hospital, but right now she couldn't leave. She had to tell Meredith, she had to be the one to tell her.

She stood in the door way to the cafeteria and scanned the tables. It didn't take her long to spot her, she was sitting at the same table she always sat at, with the same person she always sat with, Cristina.

"Meredith," She walked right up to the table and waited for some acknowledgement of her presence. "Can I talk to you?"

Both women turned and stared at her. They were expecting her to talk there, in front of everyone. "In private."

"Whatever you have to say Lexie you can say it here."

The response shouldn't have surprised her, the only time she got a private conversation was when she took it, not when she asked for it. If she'd had time she would have waited, waited for that private moment but things needed to be said now, before they reached the grape vine.

"Meredith," The rest of the sentence caught in her throat. "Our," This was harder than she thought it would be, she couldn't get the words out. "Meredith our dad is dead."

The words came out of her mouth in a rush of syllables and then she just stood there. She stood there and watched Meredith's face, she watched her for some reaction but she didn't flinch, and then she started laughing.

"That's a good one Lexie," She laughed. "I'm listening. Next time you might want to use something a little less dramatic."

"I'm not joking." She could feel her voice starting to shake. "He wrapped his car around a tree, he was drunk. His body is in the ER if you want to see."

-8-8-8-8-8-

Lexie sat at the dinning table of the home she'd grown up in. On one side of her sat her younger sister Molly and on the other her Aunt Mary. In front of each of them sat a copy of a document titled "Will of Thatcher Grey". For the last hour they'd been going through it, trying to divide up everything he owned. It was supposed to be simple, but things weren't as simple as they first seemed. At the top of the will he said he'd leave everything to his daughters, but he didn't expend on that, he didn't elaborate. For half an hour they'd argued over that one sentence, who did he mean by his daughters, did he expect them to split everything with Meredith too?

Molly didn't seem to think so, but Lexie thought he would have wanted her to have something. In the end they'd agreed to disagree and go through the possessions listed, if there was something there Meredith should have she could have it but what would she want with tea sets and book collections which had mainly belonged to their mother in the first place. They were almost at the bottom of the list, they'd agreed on what to do with most things, the family heirlooms were split between them and everything else would be sold. But the last item had them all very confused. According to the will, Thatcher Grey owned a log cabin in a town they'd never heard of.

"I think we have a map here somewhere." Molly said standing up. "Maybe if we see where it is we might remember it."

"No," Lexie stared at the name. "I think we should give it to Meredith. Maybe she knows what it is."

"We can't just give it to her." There was a defensive tone to Molly's voice, she didn't like the idea of Meredith getting anything. "We don't know what it is."

"What do you suppose we do with it then?"

"Sell it just like everything else we don't want."

"I want it." The words came out of Lexie's mouth before she even realized what she was saying.

"What?"

"I want it." She said it again with a little more conviction. "I don't want to just sell it, I want to see what it is first."


	2. Chapter 2

Lexie walked into the tiny apartment she shared with George and dropped her bag on to the ground. She was so tired and drained, going through her father's will and then beginning the process of packing his thing away hadn't been easy. The argument she'd had with Molly about it only made things harder. It was this stupid cabin it was messing everything up.

"Do you want a drink?"

She jumped at the sound of George's voice, she didn't think he was home. He walked out of the kitchen alcove carrying two bottles of beer.

"Thanks." She pulled a bottle from his hands, and walked over to their sofa. She plunked herself down in it and took a long sip of the drink. She didn't even like beer, it left a strange taste in her mouth but at that moment she needed it, she needed something to take the edge off.

George came and sat down beside her. He didn't say anything to her but he held out his arm inviting her to snuggle against him. She moved her body closer his side and rested her head against his shoulder. They both took long sips of their dinks and stared at the wall where a television should have been.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

George was always asking her if she wanted to talk. She did want to, she needed to but she always found it hard, she found herself always going around and around in circles as she tried to work out everything.

"Molly and I had a fight today." The words slowly began coming out. "Dad's will…he didn't tell us anything. It didn't make any sense and we couldn't agree on anything, well we agreed on some things but others."

She took another sip of her drink.

"He owned a cabin, a big cabin, ten miles out of the middle of no where."

"Really?"

"We didn't even know he had it. We've never been there, never even seen the place."

"Oh."

"It's almost like he had some hidden life. Why would he never tell us about it? Why didn't we ever go there for vacations? The area looks really beautiful."

"Maybe –" The words trailed from George's mouth, he had an idea but he didn't want to verbalize it.

"I wanted to give the cabin to Meredith. I thought maybe she'd know what it was, maybe she'd remember it but Molly didn't want that, she wants to sell it."

"And you don't?"

"No, not yet. I want to see it first. I want to know why he kept it, why we never went there."

She took another long sip of her drink and stared at the wall. For a long time they didn't say anything, they just drank.

"Lexie," George said after a while. "Maybe you should talk to Meredith."

-8-8-8-8-

Lexie walked down the corridors of the hospital towards the cafeteria. As she walked she tried not think of the last time she made this walk, the last time she went to find Meredith. Last time she'd laughed in her face, she'd laughed at her and it had hurt in a way she hadn't expected. She'd wanted her to care and in that moment, she didn't seem to care at all. She'd hardly spoken to her since then but she needed to talk to her now.

She came to the doorway of the cafeteria and looked around. Meredith was sitting at her usual table with Cristina, Izzie and Alex.

"Okay," she thought to herself. George had talked her into this, convinced her that she wasn't going to stop thinking about it until she had some answers.

She walked straight up to the table and pulled up a seat.

"Meredith can we talk?" She asked the question and then watched as everyone stopped eating and stared at her.

"Sure Lexie what is it?" She spoke to her with a kind voice; she'd been nicer to her the last few weeks.

"The other day we went through our father, my father," She never quite knew what to refer to him as when she talked to Meredith. "We went through the will."

"Yeah, George mentioned you'd been doing that."

"Oh," She hadn't expected George to talk about her with Meredith. "Did he tell you anything?"

"No he just said you'd been going through it."

"Okay." She tried to regroup her thoughts; the scene wasn't going quite that way she had written it in her head.

"Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Yes, kind of. Do you know anything about a cabin up north? There was a cabin in the will which Molly and I didn't even know existed." The words started to come out now and she began to ramble. "I thought maybe you might know something about it. Maybe you've been there. I have no idea what it is, why he had it, why he never told us about it. Do you know anything about it?"

-8-8-8-8-

The words came out of Lexie's mouth in a rush which made them hard for Meredith to understand.

"Lexie slow down."

The words slowly trailed from Lexie's mouth. "Do you know anything?"

"A cabin?" Meredith wasn't sure what to make of it either but she did have some vague recollection of going to a cabin with her dad when she was little. It was by a river and in summer they went fishing and one winter he'd tried to teach her to ice skate. She had a recollection of almost falling through the ice and a few months later she was moving with her mother to Boston. She hadn't thought about it since then.

"Yeah a cabin. Molly and I don't know what to make of it. She wants to sell it but I told her I wanted it. I want to see what it is."

"Don't sell it." The defensive tone to her voice surprised even her. "It's a beautiful cabin; you don't want to sell it."

"You know what it is?"

"I think I went there when I was little. I remember a cabin." She was starting to force the recollections now and they were becoming clearer. "It was huge, it had four bedrooms, one of them even had an open fire, and then there was this big open area with another open fire."

"It sounds nice." Lexie seemed to smile at her and then fidget on the chair. The others were still staring at them both, watching the conversation unfold. "I was going to check it out next weekend. Do you want to come?"

"Sure." She didn't really want to go though; she didn't like the idea of spending an extended period of time alone with Lexie. "I'll have to swap some shifts around."

"Oh, okay." She sounded a little disappointed. "I should get going." Lexie stood up and walked away from the table and Meredith turned her attention back to her friends.

"A cabin?" Cristina looked at her with an amused expression on her face. "You and Lexie going to go to a cabin together?"

"I didn't say I was going yet."

"You should go." Izzie offered throwing her two cents in. "Maybe there will be something there for you."

"Or maybe she'll get stuck in the middle of no where with a sister she can't stand." Alex bit into his sandwich and laughed at his own attempt at humor.

"I still think you should go Mere. She did ask you, maybe you'll find something to connect on."

"Yeah, I know I just don't know if I could stand an entire weekend with just Lexie" She kept eating her lunch and tried to think things through. Izzie was right, she should go but she didn't want to go by herself. "I got an idea. Why don't you all come too? The place is huge, it could be fun."


	3. Chapter 3

Lexie stood on the lawn at the front of Meredith's home. All around her sat piles of camping gear; what was meant to be just her and Meredith had turned into a massive group trip. Meredith had invited Cristina, Alex and Izzie, so she invited George and then they all realized they were probably going to need some equipment so Meredith invited Derek.

Now all this equipment was spread out across the lawn. There were mats, pillows, sleeping bag, lanterns, gas cookers, saucepans, fry pans, and several large boxes of food.

Derek looked down at his watch, it was going on 8am, it was getting late, at least in his book. They should be on the road but the cars still weren't packed.

"Come on everyone. Lets get this stuff in the car so we can go." He yelled trying to get everyone moving. He felt like a school teacher trying to get a bunch of kids to do something. They were all amateurs, they didn't know what they were doing, and he was starting to wonder why he'd let Meredith talk him into coming.

George picked up the sleeping bags and started shoving them into the boot of Lexie's car. The small model hatch back wasn't going to fit much more, if he filled it with sleeping bags he could say he packed one of the cars.

Alex looked at the mass of things on the front lawn, he didn't want to admit it but he didn't know what half the things were, he didn't know what they were used for or how they should be handled. He picked up one of the giant tubs of food and carried it over to Meredith's car. He shoved the box inside and then went back for another tub, he knew what food was and he knew he wasn't leaving the house without it.

Cristina stared at the piles of stuff on the ground. She picked up one of the lanterns and examined it.

"Mere, what's with the lanterns?" she yelled. "I thought you said this place has electricity."

"It does," Meredith called back to her. "But I was five the last time I was there."

"Five? Are you telling me no one has been there for twenty five years?"

"Maybe, just help pack the car."

Cristina carried the lantern over to Derek's car and placed it just inside. She was beginning to regret agreeing to come. It would seem this cabin might not be the wonderful place Meredith had convinced her it would be.

Izzie stood in the kitchen watching everyone outside start packing the cars. There were a lot of things that needed packing and she planed to avoid it all. She'd done enough packing already, she didn't trust anyone else to handle the food so she'd been single handedly packing it all. She was almost done, in the oven were the last batches of muffins, apple and cinnamon, she planned to give them to everyone for breakfast. She'd make her exit from the kitchen at the last possible minute.

-8-8-8-8-

One hour later everything was packed. The three cars, Meredith's, Derek's and Lexie's were packed to the rims with stuff, most of it they didn't need, it had been thrown in under the motto of 'be prepared', prepared for what they weren't quite sure but they seemed to have everything. Meredith's car was full almost entirely with food and cooking stuff.

"Are we ready to go?" Derek asked looking around at everyone. He found Meredith's eye and gave her a look. He wanted to get on the road, he wanted to get to the cabin and see what kind of state it was in.

"Yeah I think we're ready." Meredith said looking around, everything that had been on the lawn was now packed in one of the cars. "Yep we're ready. Lets go."

"Wait." The voice came from Alex. "Where's Izzie?"

"What?"

As a group everyone seemed to look around, her absence hadn't been noticed while they'd been working but now it was obvious she was missing.

"She's probably inside getting more food." Someone grumbled. "Did she help us pack any of this stuff?"

"No." The voice came from behind them and they looked up to see Izzie walking out the front door of the house. "But I did make and pack all the food last night and I made breakfast." She held out the bag of muffins, inviting everyone to take one. No one seemed to want to take them though, not until George reached out and took one followed closely by Alex.

"Okay, so we're packed, we've eaten, and everyone is here. Now lets get moving." Derek called again. He was sick of wasting time, everyone was already getting on his nerves, he wanted to hit the road so he could go fly fishing.

"No need to snap." Lexie glared at him. She was still a little annoyed that him and everyone else of that matter was coming. "We're moving."

Everyone began piling into the cars, Meredith and Cristina in one, Derek traveling solo in his car and Lexie, George, Izzie and Alex all in another. The seating arrangements hadn't been discussed they'd kind of just fallen into place but they worked well.

Everyone sat in the cars waiting for Meredith to leave, she kind of knew where this place was so it had been agreed that she should lead.

"Come on Meredith." Derek yelled from his car. "What's the problem?"

There was a pause before she yelled back. "The car won't start."

"What!" The cry came from almost everyone's mouth. "What do you mean the car won't start?"

"It won't start. I'm turning the key and nothing is happening."

"Shit."

Everyone started climbing out of the cars again. Everyone that is except for Izzie and Alex who were already making themselves comfortable in the back seat of Lexie's car.

George walked over to Meredith's car and lifted the hood. He stared at the inside of the car looking for something, hoping that what ever was wrong was obvious. His dad had known about cars, his brothers knew about cars, they never shut up about the cars, he somehow hoped that some of that 'nonsense' might have sunk in but he had nothing. Looking at the car he couldn't tell what was wrong. Derek came up beside him and joined in the staring. They were doctors though not mechanics, they didn't fix cars, they paid people to fix cars. They didn't have time to fix the car though, they needed to get moving.

"What are we going to do?" Meredith asked the group.

"We could take my car." George offered. Everyone else gave him a strange look.

"Your car isn't going to fit all that stuff."

"It was just an idea. I don't see you coming up with anything better."

They all stood there as a group mulling over their options, trying to think of a solution. Half the problem was Meredith's car was full of everything, it was full of food and they couldn't leave that behind. It was Derek who finally came up with a solution.

"Mark's got the weekend off. We could ask him to come, use his car."

"Sloan?" Everyone else stared at Derek. Mark was his friend, not any of theirs.

"Do you have any better ideas? He's got the car, and we really need to get going." He stared everyone down, challenging them to come up with something better but in the time they had there wasn't anything better.

"Fine." They all said. "Go invite Sloan."

-8-8-8-8-

Mark lay in the bed of his motel room. His prize from the night before, a woman who's name might have been Mindy lay in the bed beside him. He was running his fingers along her body, he loved a beautiful body. He was thinking of maybe letting Mindy stay till lunch when his phone started ringing. He glanced at the caller ID, it was Derek.

"Hey Derek, what do you want?"

As Derek explained what was going on, what he wanted, Mark couldn't help but laugh. Derek had mentioned something about going away somewhere with Meredith but he hadn't realized the rest of Meredith's crowd were coming along too.

"You want me to go camping with you and all of them?" He asked trying not laugh, the mere idea that he might want to do something like that was crazy, he wasn't really the outdoors type.

"It's not camping, we'll be indoors." Derek tried to convince him.

"What, in that cabin which no one has seen in twenty five years. You don't even know if the thing is still standing."

"That's why we packed tents."

Mark let out another laugh, as Derek kept talking.

"Come on do this for me. We can ditch all the others and go fly fishing, like when we were kids."

"I'm not sure if you remember Derek but you were the only one fishing."

"Oh right. Well don't go fishing then come for the scenery. How's that new leaf of yours going? Some time in the woods might do you some good."

Mark let out a sigh and glanced over at the woman in the bed beside him. Derek had to do it, he had to bring up the new leaf.

"Fine." Mark replied, finally agreeing to come.

-8-8-8-8-

Derek hung up the phone and walked back to the group. "He's coming." He told them before they had time to ask. "We should start unpacking Meredith's car so we can make a quick transition."

There was a collective groan from everyone, as they turned to Meredith's car, packing it had been a bitch the first time, it wasn't going to be any better the second.

George walked over to Lexie's car. "Are you guys going to help?" He asked sticking his head into the back seat where Alex and Izzie still sat.

"I'd love to." Alex replied with a smug look on his face. "But I can't, she's asleep."

George looked closer into the car and noticed Izzie was slumped over, her head resting squarely in Alex's lap, and her eyes closed.

"Is she okay?" He found himself asking.

"Yeah, she's fine."Alex assured. "She was just up till 5am cooking."

"Oh right." George said walking away, he wasn't entirely suspired Izzie had spent the night cooking, he'd lost count of the number of times she'd done that while he'd lived in the house. He couldn't help wondering why she'd done it, they needed food for the trip but they could have brought it, usually she only did all-nighters when there was something on her mind.

-8-8-8-8-

Half an hour after the phone call Mark pulled his car up in front of the house. Derek led the charge in packing the car. He really wanted to get going, in his mind they should have been on the road two hours ago. It took thirty minutes for them to pack everything again, to make everything fit.

"Is everything packed?" Derek asked for the second time that day. He waited for the chorus of yeses and then he started moving towards his car. Mark moved to his car, and George and Lexie moved to hers. Meredith went to move towards Derek's car but Cristina reached out and grabbed her arm.

"Meredith wait." She hissed. "Do you expect me to ride with Sloan?"

Meredith looked back at her, an amused look across her face. With everything packed there were only two empty seats left and they were next to Derek and Mark.

"Would you rather ride with Derek?" Meredith offered but Derek wasn't any better an option, in fact he was probably worse. "If you really want to you can ride with Derek but I think you'd have more fun with Sloan."

Cristina tried to give her an evil look which only made Meredith laugh harder. "It's only a couple of hours. You'll have fun."

"Whatever." She glared at Meredith again and started walking off. If she'd thought she might enjoy herself more in one of the other cars she might have tried to kick someone out but all the cars kind of sucked. She was really wishing now she hadn't agreed to come but Meredith had promised her a good weekend and kept assuring her it would be great when they got there.


	4. Chapter 4

Three hours, for three straight hours they drove. Lexie, wanted to stop and George wanted to stop, and Cristina wanted to stop, there were many conversations over cells phones about stopping but Derek didn't want to stop and he was the one with the directions, he was the only one who knew where exactly they were going.

"I need to pee." Lexie said louder than necessary as she climbed out the car. She went to run inside the cabin but after two steps she came to a quick stop.

The cabin was not at all like she was expecting. A small tree was growing out of the porch and the walls appeared to be covered in a layer of mold. "Wow," Lexie whispered as she stared at the cabin.

"Woah," George exclaimed as he came to stand beside her.

"You've got to be kidding me?" Cristina complained as she stepped out of Mark's car and stared at the cabin. "I thought you said this place was beautiful?" she called to Meredith.

"It was when I was five."

Now the cabin was anything but beautiful, it looked old and ugly and like it was about to fall down. Everyone stood in front of the cars staring at it. They weren't sure what they were supposed to do, they weren't sure if they wanted to go near it.

"Maybe it's better inside." The words came from Meredith's mouth and she started walking towards the front steps. She used her weight to test them, they didn't break. That was the first step, the second one cracked a little but it stayed in place, the third one was good. She stepped up on to the porch and walked around, those boards were still good too. "I think it's okay."She called, "Come on over."

-8-8-8-8-8-8-

Inside the cabin was much like the outside, very very dirty but it seemed to be structurally sound, at least when they all walked through it no one fell through the floor boards. That was about all it had going for it though, the electricity and water the place once had were long gone and the furniture was just as bad. There was some reminiscence that once it might have looked beautiful but now it was all covered in dust, dirt, and mold. They couldn't use any of it and their weekend away in a log cabin was looking more and more like it was going to be a camping trip.

"It's not so bad," The statement came from Lexie and everyone turned to her like she was crazy. "We can move all the furniture to one side and bring everything in. The fire places look like they still work and we've got the lanterns, and the lake, we don't need the water and electricity."

"Seriously?" Cristina said giving her a look of disbelief. "You actually think we can stay here? In this place?"

"Yes," This cabin was hers and she wasn't planning on leaving just yet. She didn't care what the others did but seeing as her car had brought half of them there, she was certain they would stay. "It'll be a bit rough and not what you were expecting but it's still livable." She began looking at the faces around her trying to find someone who might agree with her. She was met with blank stares and more looks of disbelief from Cristina, Mark, and Alex but she could see the idea turning through Meredith, Derek, and Izzie's faces, they didn't seem as opposed to the idea, and George he just smiled at her.

"I think we can make this work." He said. "Lets start moving everything out of the way and then we can bring the stuff in."

-8-8-8-8-8-8-

Making the cabin livable was easier and harder than they all thought, it just depended how the word livable was defined. Once all the furniture was moved aside there was plenty of room for all the things they'd brought. They swept the floor and set the living area up with the camp gear and all the cooking things were set up in a corner where a kitchen once stood.

"This looks alright." Izzie said to herself as she admired the work she'd done. She'd taken it upon herself to set up the kitchen, she'd told everyone she'd be doing all the cooking and she wanted it done right, or at the very least how she wanted it.

"Wow this place scrubbed up alright." She turned around and saw Alex walk in the door carry a large pile of firewood. He'd disappeared shortly after they started cleaning, he'd said something about being in the way and needing to do something useful. He dumped the wood by the fire and walked over to her. "Where is everyone else?"

"I think Derek and Mark went fishing, the others are cleaning their bedrooms."

"Their bedrooms?"

"Yeah, Meredith claimed the big one for her and Derek, Cristina got the small one and George and Lexie are shearing the other one."

"Really? And where are we sleeping then?" He looked at her with a confused expression.

"Oh, I thought we could pitch a tent." She smiled at him and hoped he would understand her reasoning for not fighting for a room. "Maybe in a tent we might be able to get some alone time." She gave him a wink and kissed him before he had a chance to argue with her.


End file.
